Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are a significant pollutant generated during combustion and it is desirable to reduce their generation in carrying out combustion. It is known that combustion may be carried out with reduced NOx generation by using technically pure oxygen or oxygen-enriched air as the oxidant as this reduces the amount of nitrogen provided to the combustion reaction on an equivalent oxygen basis. However the use of an oxidant having a higher oxygen concentration than that of air causes the combustion reaction to run at a higher temperature and this higher temperature kinetically favors the formation of NOx.
Staged combustion has been used to reduce NOx generation, particularly when the oxidant is a fluid having an oxygen concentration which exceeds that of air. In staged combustion, fuel and oxidant are introduced into a combustion zone in a substoichiometric ratio and combusted. Due to the excess amount of fuel available for combustion, very few of the oxygen molecules of the oxidant react with nitrogen to form NOx. Additional oxygen is provided to the combustion zone to complete the combustion in a second downstream stage.
In order to carry out effective combustion with oxidant having a higher oxygen concentration than that of air, the fuel and/or oxidant must be provided into the furnace at a relatively high velocity in order to achieve the requisite momentum. The combustion reactants must have a certain momentum in order to assure adequate mixing of the fuel and oxidant for efficient combustion. The high momentum also causes the combustion reaction products to more effectively spread throughout the furnace to transfer heat to the furnace charge. Momentum is the product of mass and velocity. An oxidant having an oxygen concentration which exceeds that of air will have a lower mass than air on an equivalent oxygen molecule basis. For example, an oxidant fluid having an oxygen concentration of 30 mole percent will have about 70 percent the mass of an oxidatively equivalent amount of air. Accordingly, in order to maintain the requisite momentum, the velocity of the combustion reaction must be correspondingly higher.
In many industrial furnace operations, the high velocity and consequent vigorous mixing and spread of the combustion reaction products within the furnace is not disadvantageous. However, in some situations it is desirable to maintain one or more of the combustion reaction products from contacting the charge. For example, one or more of the combustion reaction products could chemically react with the charge in an unwanted chemical reaction. This problem may be overcome by interposing a physical barrier between the combustion reaction and the charge, but this solution imposes a significant energy penalty on the furnace operation even when the barrier is made of material having good heat transfer properties.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved staged combustion method wherein fuel and oxidant combust in a combustion reaction having the requisite momentum, with the charge being protected from deleterious contact with combustion reaction products while still ensuring good heat transfer from the combustion reaction to the charge.